Performer mixes music and politics at NLFB festival

BY BILL BRADLEY 

Chuck Angus played performer and politician at the Northern Lights Festival Boreal (NLFB) Friday night on stage at Bell Park.

The federal NDP member for James Bay Timmins led his band, the Grievous Angels, in a set of  fiesty northern songs set in northern Ontario towns. He also, on and off the stage, recounted his adventures as a sitting member of parliament and his fight for improving the lot of First Nations people in his riding.

“Things are so bad  in those native villages because the bureaucrats and politicians believe no one knows what squalor they live in. I do. I have seen the poverty, the lack of adequate health and education first hand there. It makes me angry. That keeps me fighting on for them,” said Angus after his show.

Angus has produced a video about the lack of a proper elementary school in the First Nations community of Attawapiskat, James Bay aired on Ytube. Hundreds of schools across Canada have sent letters to the federal government in support of the community after viewing the video made by Angus in cooperation with the students of the reserve.

For his contributions to northern Ontario, Angus was recognized by being in receipt of the Jackie Washington Award by the NLFB in 1999.

The Grievous Angels were formed in 1986 and have produced six albums. Members include Peter Jellard, Dave Patterson and Tim Hadley.

Headliners at NLFB include Quebec superstar Daniel Belanger, Saturday and Don McLean, Sunday.

For more information visit www.nlfbsudbury.com.